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R.I.P. Lloyd Skelton, known as lloydSSJ4 on the Outlaw Star UK forums, who took his life in 2014. He'll never be forgotten. Check out my memorial video here.-Mantis

Smart Homes

Are you at all worried about Smart Homes?

I may sound a bit like a tin hat wearing buffoon when I say this, but they scare me. The thought of everything being run by computers and being online, cameras and scanning devices on everything... I know eventually we will get to this point but I am like one of those old people screaming to get it off my lawn. I like simple living with minimum technology. Aside from my phone and my computers, nothing I own has access to the internet.

I do however see the security benefits and making life "easier" but I can't get passed the fear of privacy invasion.

I'm lazy and I like my technology, so I jumped on this bandwagon. I have two Amazon Echos and a few smart bulbs. It's not just the convenience. I often found my lights too bright in my living room, but with this I can actually control brightness.

Admittedly my flat is too small to get the most out of home automation, but I do have a few Amazon Dash buttons. It is useful to be able to just press a button when I run out of cat food, litter, bin bags, etc. Otherwise I have ended up forgetting to place an order with the app or website.

As for the whole security worry, this is usually propagated by the media because it's controversial, thus profitable. The Echo isn't really always listening. Any data is stored in such a small cache until it hears "Alexa", and yes, then it records commands temporarily. Hypothetically speaking, what's the worst it might record? That you love Alexa?

Gene: "Have faith in me guys, enjoy the ride—you're in good hands. I can handle this. I can do it!"Jim: "How do you know?"Gene: "I don't!"Jim: "I knew it."Gene: "That's okay. There's a first time for everything!"

Looking at it long-term, I think automation in our homes is an awesome thing. It frees up time, everyone's most valuable asset. This time in turn could be used for positive things: reading, exercise, working on your passions. I'm all for freeing up as much time as possible, that way we can live out our dreams.

I can understand the fear though, and it goes back to ancient times. Spartans utilized Helots to perform all of the daily activities that would normally have required their attention (mostly agriculture, people gotta eat), thus freeing them up to focus on perfecting the art of battle. However, the Helots outnumbered them by a huge margin, so they were always fearful of an uprising, which did occur on several occasions.

Translated into modern day terms, the fear for us would be once these home automation technologies integrate AI, I mean sophisticated AI into their technologies. We will be the Spartans once again, and our home automation devices will indeed outnumber us.

Something to ponder.

If you want to grant your own wish, then you should clear your own path to it. - Okabe Rintarou

If ever a future with smart homes materializes in the future, we should be expecting more interaction with technology and less and less with humans. We can notice it now in the form of social media, we turn to our phones for companionship instead of taking the time to meet people in person.

And Korin is right. It's not the technology that is scary but the person behind who uses it.